-12F and -15F ... 40 hours below zero

The low Friday night reached -12 F and the low Saturday night was -15F. We did not even get above zero on Saturday ... about 40 hours straight of below zero F temperatures. We do have a good snow cover, which helps some. I am concerned about my stressed Foch vines. Normally they would survive -15F weather easily, but they went into the winter fairly weak. We will see what happens come this spring.

The high tunnel only got down to about 15 F .... WOW! ... much warmer than I had planned. I am anxious to see what the spring brings for it. My next concern, is that the vines in the tunnel will break bud too early. Hopefully that risk won't occur until the beginning of April.


The rabbits are attacking my vines in my backyard. They chewed right through one, and damaged another severely. I have had snow cover in my backyard since the beginning of December, so food may be scarce. The vineyard is probably doing better.... there are a lot of owls in the area, and there has been periods with no snow cover, so the rabbits may not be as hungry as they are in the city. I'll need to scout the vineyard for animal damage in a few weeks.

Deep freeze

We have hit a bit of a cold stretch. We have been sub zero fahrenheit
since Friday evening. This has been the longest sub zero stretch the
vineyard has seen since the vineyard was planted in 2003.

Up until last night, the coldest the vineyard has seen this winter was
-8F

Last night was near -10. I should have more precise minimum
temperatures when I check my max/min thermometers in a couple of weeks.

Hopefully the hightunnel is doing its job.